Summer's back!

Well after weeks of pretty crappy weather, summer seems to be back with a vengeance. It's forecast 35°C tomorrow (95°F) and while many places get it hotter, that's plenty hot enough for me. Too hot actually, but thankfully those temperatures tend to last only about four weeks before dropping back down. Still, at least where we are we (hopefully) don't get the awful wild fires that we're seeing (mainly in Canada and Maui right now) - my heart breaks for the people caught up in that nightmare! I don't like to have the windows open at night (bugs and other creep-crawlies) but it has been hellish hot without AC, so I might put my little mobile unit on until this heat breaks!

Last Tuesday was a holiday here (Assumption), although why the French have 15 August as a holiday and not Good Friday beats me - but then I'm not Catholic so what would I know! With that in mind, the people in the white house you can see across the field in my header picture decided to have a party last Monday night and were at it all night long! Not loud music or anything like that, but just loads of people screaming and yelling (though thankfully not fighting). I read until 3 a.m. and then must have fallen asleep until more yelling woke me at 5 a.m. and then I was done. I'm a bit surprised at it actually because the French have pretty strict rules about just how much noise you can make (or how long it can go on for) but I guess this one slipped through the net. Then on Tuesday (which was the holiday) my neighbour must have decided it was a good day to drill everything within a 10 mile radius so that was me done for the day! Still, it doesn't happen that often so I guess you have to go with the flow, even if it did feel a bit like this at times!

While I was making dinner the other night, I realized that the gas flame wasn't burning very hot, which must mean that my gas bottle was running out. We don't have mains gas here so have to buy those large gas bottles that you used to see on a BBQ. Man I know I'm getting old because lugging the empty bottle down to the supermarket was bad enough but getting the full bottle off the top rack nearly killed me!!! I always have a spare on hand but could I get the damn thing to work!!!! I've changed these bottles many, many times but this time I took the sealant rings off both joints - and then realized what a stupid thing that was to do, so put them both back on and decided to sleep on it. Well next day, as often happens, I decided that "the gauge" (looked a bit like this):

... probably needed to be in the horizontal position and bingo, it works so crisis averted! While I was running around I popped into LIDL for a few things. They'd got six crates of tomatoes for sale on an end aisle and I was pretty perturbed to see a couple bagging up the whole lot (all six crates) and clearing them all out! I guess they were going to be making a lot of tomato sauce at some point but I do think they might have left a few in case other people wanted some! Not me, because I don't buy my produce there but surely there has to be some kind of etiquette for that kind of thing - or maybe not!

Jordan and Jen arrived back from Brittany having had a wonderful time. They said the initial dismal weather didn't really bother them that much as they had so many places they wanted to visit anyway. They decided to stop off on the way back to spend a few days with Jen's grandparents, and wouldn't you know but Charlie - who had been great the whole time - decided it was his time to be cranky as hell! Maybe the heat was getting to him at this point but ....! While they were away Jordan received a job offer from the new firm starting up in this area and is going to accept it - starting work with his friend, Christophe, on 11 September, so they are both delighted!

I mentioned to my friend that La Clusaz were having a craft fair on Tuesday and did she want to go (of course she did), so we mosied up there in time to have lunch and then a wander round the fair - except we couldn't find it! I mentioned to a lady sitting next to us at the restaurant (who looked a "craft fair" kinda lady) and she said they hadn't found it either, so I'm guessing the advertising was messed up. Still, with La Clusaz being my favourite ski resort it's never a hardship to drive up there and it got us out the house (without spending too much money either)!

La Clusaz!

In other news, I was saddened to hear of the death of chat show host Michael Parkinson last week. Oh he was a fair age and hadn't been well for some time, but I remember as a kid really enjoying his shows as he allowed his guests to shine, rather than holding forth with some monologue of his own. Still, what an amazing life he had, and he had to have met some of the most interesting people over his 50-year career span!

And talking of going back 50-ish years, I wrote in a recent post about the young woman who has set up a mobile manicure unit with the help of a small grant from the local commune. Well in order to show solidarity I stopped in for a mani-pedi (only the second I've ever had in my life!!!) on Monday and it was wonderful! Her little caravan transports you back to the 1950s-60s and I came out of there humming the theme tune from Austin Powers (but with slightly better teeth)! I hope she can make this work for her, and if so I will definitely keep going!

I'll have to buy this outfit for my next visit!

Ouch (again)!

I got a notification from Easyjet yesterday that I could now download my boarding pass for my trip to Mallorca in early September. After much faffing around I got it done and printed off the list of things I don't want to forget for my trip. It's been over four years since I was in Sri Lanka and that being my last big trip I'm obviously a bit rusty at this travel malarky! One of the things I want to take with me is my kindle as it's good to have something to read during the down times. About 18 months ago Amazon contacted me to let me know that my old kindle (bought in 2010 I think) was no longer supported by their system so I reluctantly bought a new cheapo kindle to replace it. I don't like it as much as my old one, but when I started downloading books onto it, I noticed that they were also downloading onto my defunct old kindle (?) so I'm still going to use that. What a rip off though right? When I travelled previously I also used to take my clunky old iPad as I like a bigger screen than my phone, so when I saw it sitting forlornly in a drawer I decided to charge it and bingo, it still works, so I'll be taking that too!

The weather here this past month has been bloody awful. Not cold exactly, but grey, wet and depressing for the most part. Last week La Roche hosted its annual Blue Grass festival and while it wasn't exactly rained out, I'm sure there would have been a much bigger attendance if we'd had better weather. It's such a shame as bands come from all over the world and the organizers put so much work into it, but what can you do? Nothing right?

Jordan and Jen are still in Brittany and they're having pretty much the same weather as we are. It hasn't mattered to Charlie much as there's still plenty to amuse him, but I feel so sorry for parents in particular who are hoping to amuse their kids with days at the beach and who then end up having to fork out hard earned cash on indoor attractions due to the bad weather! When I was on maternity leave with Jordan I drove home to England for a few weeks and the weather was so bad one day that we decided to take the kids to an indoor water attraction called Splashdown. I commented to my sister that it must have been so hard on one young family who were there with their four young kids - spending money they probably wouldn't have had to if they could have spent the day on the beach. I well remember back in 1966 (the last time England won the World Cup!!!!), my parents had taken us to the south coast of England and the weather was appalling! We were staying in a bed & breakfast and the owner very kindly invited everyone into his personal sitting room to watch the match - all the while it absolutely bucketed down outside! Another wet day mom and dad took us to the cinema (we saw Born Free) and while we kids probably loved every minute of it, I'm pretty sure it burned quite a hole in their planned spending money for our holiday! In fact I called my sister on Saturday as it was her birthday and it was absolutely bucketing it down. So summer in England then! At least this week weather here is back to normal temperatures but it's been a long time coming, I can tell you! (Katie telling it like it is).

On Monday I decided to have another shot at finding a store called Leclerc in the local town of  Annemasse. I hate Annemasse - it's like a rabbit warren, all one way streets, quite a few lunatic drivers and roadworks everywhere. I've tried to find this store a couple of times already and given up in frustration. Anyway, it was par for the course again on Monday and just as I'd decided to give up and go home, I realized I was right next to the entrance to the parking lot! So I finally got to check it out and I have to say the prices seem to be as reasonable as I'd heard and it was a very pleasant store to shop in (once you'd got the lay of the land I suppose), but I'm not sure my nerves could stand another round of trying to find my way around Annemasse so decided I'll just stick with the stores I already know!

Then yesterday my friend and I decided that we really wanted to get back into walking again (neither of us have done much of anything lately) and since the weather picked up we decided to head off for a "stroll" around the lac de Montriond! It's a beautiful lake but I hardly ever stop there since we always seem to just pass it on our way up to Les Lindarets (the village where the goats are allowed to run free!

Lac de Montriond
(Haute Savoie photos)

Les Lindarets
(France Comfort photos)

Anyway, we were almost there when we realized we (i.e. I) had taken a wrong turn and we ended up at another lake called le lac Bleu, so decided that was just as good as anywhere for a shortish walk. Everything was going pretty well and it only took us about an hour to walk from one lake to the next, but on the way back to the car we decided to try another route - and ended up going waayyyy out of our way, sloshing through mud and fallen trees, and coming out at a dead end and having to go back the way we came. I got bogged down in mud trying to get through one spot, and my friend went flying in another, but thankfully landed on her side rather than her dodgy knee, so after much cussing and swearing, putting in 20,000 steps and almost 10 miles, we finally made it back to the original lake looking like something the cat'd dragged in! So yeah, we wanted to start walking again, but I don't think either of us had bargained on that! My knee has been giving me some gyp for quite some time now and yesterday did it no favours, so today I tried out a few exercises that Dr. Youtube suggested and while at one point I thought I'd just moved the pain from one spot to another, since this afternoon the pain has completely gone! Isn't Youtube amazing! We've got another walk planned for next week so I'll see if my knee holds out till then - here's hoping!

le lac Bleu!

Part of the "obstacle course"!

Proceed with caution!

Well how about that global warming then! So far I think we've had the crappiest summer I can remember in a long time. While we've had a few hot days, temperatures in general have been much cooler - which I really appreciate, of course - but couple that with grey skies and peeing down rain and it's not much fun. Oh and a serious hail storm last week! Jordan and Jen are in Brittany on vacation and while they've had a few good days, the sea has been too cold to swim and the wind is blowing a hoolie. I don't think they'll mind too much though as they must both be glad of the break! Just before they left Jordan had an interview for the new position (two-man team) being set up in this area. He has reason to be more than hopeful as Christophe (his previous supervisor) has told the new guy that he wants Jordan on his team. I asked Jordan if he ever found out what the €1.5 million debt was for his previous company and he said he thought it was just pure mismanagement/theft to be honest. Apparently at one point the owner somehow (allegedly) managed to transfer €300,000 out of the business acount with no apparent paper trail, so I guess his house of cards is now coming tumbling down, so much so that when administrators were called in they found him at the Pont de la Caille! There's only one reason anyone goes to the Pont de la Caille, but thankfully they caught him before he did anything stupid - for now, I suppose!

Pont de la Caille!

Also before they left I got a call from Parchet, my heating system service group where Jen is now working. She spotted that they hadn't done a service for me in over two years so booked me in before she left. I told her it wasn't a problem as I had cancelled the last one since my new system had just been installed. Anyway, "the guy" come out last week - so there went another €300 I hadn't budgeted for. Still, you can't let these things just drag on, can you! Then the roofing guy I mentioned in my last post showed up to do some of the repairs he had talked about. When he took one look at my chimney he told me how dangerous it was. I knew this was true because I'd been told about it before, but when he showed me pictures the entire "hat" was cracked and if it had flown off it could have done serious damage. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at that because it's the original chimney from when the house was built in 1979, but I think I just kept putting it off until .... well who knows until when! He then showed me pictures of the top tiles that must have been lifted up slightly in the dreadful storm we had about a month ago, so I took a good look, and sure enough at the front of the house the tiles had become dislodged too. Well of course it all had to be fixed, and I give him and his young assistant absolutely 10/10 for hard work as they were up and down those ladders in the scorching heat, and the main guy was certainly no spring chick - all the more so since they were dodging wasps' nests to boot. When he got round to fixing the front tiles he pulled out one of the wooden slats that the tiles sit on and told me that they were pretty much all rotten. Now since I'd had the roof re-insulated only about 18 months ago, wouldn't you think they would have told me about it????? Well the end result is that he put in a new chimney, a few new tiles, and new slats where he could on the understanding that he would stop by this time next year and see what he could do then (i.e. when I can afford it). So again, another €2,500 I hadn't budgeted for, but I suppose needs must! Add to that I'm waiting for my dentist and gynae bills to come in and my poor bank account must feel like it's on life support! Still, it could have been worse (it always can can't it) because the other morning when I went to unlock my front door I realized that while I had actually locked it, I hadn't closed it properly and the front door had blown wide open during the night! So while I suppose I could have been murdered in my sleep, they'd have been  disappointed at this point if they'd thought I was worth robbing. Ya see, every cloud has a silver lining for an eternal optimist!

I also saw last week that political figure, Nigel Farage, announced that his bank accounts with Coutts Bank (the rich people's bank) had been summarily closed in May due to his "having insufficient funds" (you need at least £1 million)! The next day these details were announced (???) on the BBC so he furiously put in for a kind of "freedom of information" from the bank which, when it was eventually supplied, turns out it was never a question of funds but more that they didn't like his political leanings. Well I'm not too keen on a lot of his political stances either. However I very much admire a person that doesn't take it lying down and since Farage had the clout and the audience, he did indeed come out swinging, so much so that he is now in the process of renegotiating with Coutts (I'd tell 'em to get stuffed, but then that's just me), the head of Coutts has resigned from her £5 million per year job, and the BBC have had to issue an apology. And I should think so too - I mean, who the hell did that woman think she was, discussing Farage's banking details at a dinner party! But Farage isn't stopping there. He's now set up a website to help other people who have been debanked with no reason given and is receiving tremendous support from the public (you can read about it here). Way to go Nigel. I guess they messed with the wrong man this time!

And finally, I woke up feeling like crap about 10 days ago and reckoned I'd gotten a dose of sinusitis. Me being me I thought I'd just let it run its course and keep using the saline solution in the hopes it would eventually disappear - except it didn't! After almost two weeks of feeling like crud I happened to spot a Youtube video by one of my favourite doctors, and he mentioned that oregano oil was very good for getting rid of sinus pain. In the comments someone pointed out that it tasted awful but he had gotten used to taking two drops in hot water every morning and it worked wonders! So I ran out and bought some oregano oil and as it said to add five drops to a drink that's what I did, adding it to honey/lemon tea to hopefully take the taste away. Well I don't know about taking the taste away - that thing almost blew the top of my head off. Seriously! But, about two hours later I was already feeling much better and by the next day I was almost back to normal. So much so that after almost two weeks of doing bugger all I managed to sort two bags of clothes for the charity bins, take a crate of food down to the food bank and a carload of stuff out to the big charity shop about 30 minutes away. So as far as I'm concerned that stuff works. All I can say if you decide to give it a go is please proceed with caution! It's explosive!

This and that!

I've been pretty lazy again lately and it was starting to get me down but then I realized I'm always like that this time of year - it's the heat ya see! And of course, as soon as September rolls around I'm up and running again like the Energizer Bunny! It's been hitting around 90° regularly here and not having A/C it can get pretty miserable of course. Oh I have a small ventilator unit that I sit in front of and last night I put a mobile A/C unit on for a short while in my bedroom, but more often than not homes don't have A/C here - just shops and offices!

Anyway last week I decided to take advantage of the A/C at the mall down in Annecy as I wanted to pick up some garlic salt (it's not easy to find here) and look for a couple of bottom sheets for my bed. So I called my friend and asked if she wanted to go with me and then maybe head off to the Jardins Secrets, which is only about 15 minutes from there. I first went there about five years ago and loved it. Then I took my family when they were over here four years ago for Jordan's wedding and while they liked it, they weren't as enthralled as I was. This friend had repeatedly said she wanted to go so we set off to hit the mall before the 2 p.m. opening of the gardens! When we got to the mall I commented that the parking was pretty full considering the kids were still in school, but when we got inside we realized that the July sales were still on (I never pay attention to that stuff). So was it fortuitous or disastrous? Who knows! We had a nice lunch but my garlic salt ended up costing me €192 - who knew you needed a shopping trolley to buy garlic salt?

We made it to the gardens around 2.30 p.m. and I think my friend loved it even more than I initially did (although the pictures don't do it justice). The flowers were in full bloom, there was so much to see, and sitting having a drink and a beignet at the end we were entertained by Alain, the husband side of the original man and wife team that had built the place. He was a real character!

Alain, the owner - making beignets!

The riyadh!

Then Friday was Bastille Day - French national day - and since we were planning to have our latest board game evening on Saturday Jen's mom suggested we have it at her place on the Friday instead so we could watch the fireworks. We had a lovely evening and Charlie had great fun kicking a ball around, while being watched by the little boy on the first floor balcony. Jen's mom was saying that he frequently throws things over the balcony and she has to take them up to give them back, so I suggested she get them to tie a basket and string to the balcony and do the transfer like that - and maybe she could get to know them better that way! Jen laughed because when Charlie throws things over their balcony, one of the neighbours on the ground floor just sticks whatever it is in the lift and sends them a message to say "incoming" - and Jen runs out to meet the lift door! Meanwhile Macron was booed at the Bastille Day parade, while Professor Didier Raoult was cheered (see here). Prof. Raoult is one of France's top microbiologists, specialising in infectious diseases and who went head to head with the government over its handling of covid - and was thoroughly abused for his pains)!

And what's going on with the French Post Office then! Apparently since 1 January you've pretty much got to "conjure up" your own stamps etc. online and drop your mail off at designated drop spots without ever seeing the inside of a post office if possible. Well I tried to avoid that kerfuffle for as long as possible, but I recently saw a post about a little boy in Pennsylvania suffering from leukeamia who was asking for postcards and decided to send him one. Except what I picked out was huge, too big to go in a regular mailbox and I couldn't find an envelope for it anyway, so I had to wrap it in brown paper like a parcel, and then gear up for registering my "parcel", and buying and printing my stamps online. I have to say, however, that when the little "can I help" chat box popped up I was expecting a bot, but ended up having a lovely chat with a really helpful chappie called Arnaud in Brittany. When I told him what I was doing he asked for the lad's address, so now Carson is going to get a post card from Arnaud at the French post office in Brittany too. How nice is that!

Then the other day "the guy" showed up to paint the underside of several neighbours' roofs and asked if I was interested. I don't know what you call it actually - it's the copper "plank" that sits just below the guttering. Sorry, but I'm not sure I ever knew what that was called, even in English. Anyway I told him not this year as I'd spent plenty of money on the house already, but when he looked at my roof he asked me if I realized my chimney was wobbly - and sadly I knew he was right. He also spotted a couple of tiles that had moved - I'm guessing in that dreadful storm we had a couple of weeks ago - so he's coming back tomorrow to re-do the chimney and check over the tiles that need resetting. Bugger it! When I had my new fire insert installed last month I became entitled to a €2,000 rebate from the state for putting an open fireplace out of action, and now all of a sudden I guess I'll just briefly smell that $2,000 cheque as it's being whipped out from under my nose!

Anyway, today I'd had enough of being lazy so thought I would take myself off to the lake at Passy for a walk (and possibly a glass of wine), but when I got down to Bonneville, the roads were blocked off as the bloody Tour de France (sorry Dave) was coming through! So any thoughts of getting a walk in went up in smoke and I drove back home and had lunch in the little restaurant in the village - which I have to say was absolutely delicious! I ended up sitting next to two older American cyclists who had flown over to catch the Tour and ended up having a nice chat with them before they had to dash off to ride down to Bonneville for the excitement!

The Tour in Les Gets - where Jordan is
currently working!

And finally, I was sorting through some paperwork the other day when I came across a packet of old photos. There were photos of the kids when they were little but also quite a few photos of my ex-MIL and a few of her siblings, which I'm going to send to her once I get round to writing a letter to include with them. She was number 11 of 11 siblings and there are only two left now, so I think she'll appreciate them. I also found a photo of André when he was about 10 competing in a grand slalom with the ski club. While he was never going to win, he was doing just fine - well that is until he saw our neighbour filming him and skied over to her for a chat. The crowd all started roaring at him as she was just short of the finish line, so he never actually crossed it and came last! I guess another Olympic hopeful bit the dust that day then!

André in the process of coming last!

Hurry up and wait!

Don't you sometimes feel like you're wading through treacle? I'm pretty sure we all feel like that sometimes, but as the great philosopher, Artistole, probably never said "meh, que sera "! I guess that's one of the advantages of being retired - for the most part you never have to hurry anymore!

The plumber was supposed to start work on Monday but meh not gonna happen. Bearing in mind this has been going on since January, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. It took four months for all the fittings and tiles to arrive and then a few months to get a plumber lined up (they're all busy, of course). I had a tiler recommended to me by my neighbours but because everything took so long he's now not available until September. I had another tiler recommended to me by the plumber and he came out about 10 days ago. So yesterday the plumber calls to ask if everything is lined up for him and the tiler to play tag team starting Monday but nope. Not only has the second guy not sent me his quote but he is also unavailable until September. I have to hand it to the plumber though, he's proactive and very much on top of everything. So I suggested he come and start work on Monday anyway but since he didn't want to leave me with a worksite for three months, we've pushed it back to mid-September, after I get back from Mallorca (assuming my original tiler can now take over)! I guess there was no point being in a rush anyway, but I do thank god I'm incredibly laid back (for the most part)!

We had a massive storm here last week and while it only lasted about an hour, my goodness did it do a lot of damage! Thankfully the only thing it damaged at my place was the BBQ which it managed to hurl down the driveway, but a few houses had roof damage and the school in the next village was pretty badly affected too. It's amazing how quickly these storms can build up and I admit I was worried about Jordan coming down the mountain after work, but he made it home ok, even if it was a bit hairy in parts. Talking of Jordan the company he has been working for (via the temp agency) for the last year proposed a helluva job offer to him a couple of weeks ago - he was stunned how good it was. However, he had quite a few questions that needed answering first - like why were they at the tribunal owing €1.6 million to their suppliers, and why hadn't they paid the temp agency for the last three months? They must have come up with some really good excuses because next day the offer still stood - and that is when his supervisor, Christophe, managed to get hold of him just before he signed and told him not to do it as they were going bust! Christophe told him he'd just handed in his notice and that the company's former director (who had resigned in May) had set up his own company based out of Grenoble, but was also looking to have a two-man team working the Vallée de l'Arve area (this area) and was Christophe interested? So Christophe said yes, as long as Jordan comes with him!!! They get along really well so fingers crossed it all works out for him this time. In the meantime, the temp agency has pulled him off the job in Flaine (building a hotel) and he's now working a bit lower down the mountain for another company. He said he was a bit disappointed as he would have liked to have seen the hotel through to the end, but I wonder if it will ever get finished now!

My sister called me the other week and when I picked up she said "finally, where have you been"? Well nowhere as it turned out, but I had apparently missed a couple of calls on my mobile so she started to become concerned when she wasn't getting through on the landline either. I just laughed and told her I'd unplugged the house phone about six months ago as I was fed up of the telemarketers, but I never thought to actually tell her! Anyway, she called to tell me that my niece and her husband had received the gift certificate I'd sent them for dinner in a local restaurant when Ian feels better. In fact the manager of the restaurant had hand delivered it "as he was in town anyway". Ian was the one that collapsed in the street a couple of months ago and they found out he'd had several heart attacks. Anyway, he was in hospital for a total of about five weeks (they did a valve replacement) and while the operation went well, recovery is very, very slow. For as big and gruff a man as he is (he looks like Desperate Dan), it hit him extremely hard mentally, so there are huge lifestyle changes being made in the C household as a result - and good for them!

Desperate Dan - god that takes me back!

When I opened my shutters this morning I noticed my neighbour sitting on my wall scraping away at a few weeds growing into it. Fine by me. I try to keep up with it but I can't be everywhere all the time and in any case I know he likes to keep himself busy. But when I came down a bit later I realized he was actually painting it (it desperately needed it) and again, fine by me. It's a very small wall and he said he had a pot of paint that he didn't want to waste and he would "paint as far as he could". So I told him I had odd pots of paint downstairs and went down to look around and guess what - I came back with another half pot of exactly the same colour, so he is going to do the whole thing. While I know I moan about him a lot and for sure would not want to be married to him, he's not all bad, as you can see. Now I have to give some thought to redoing that front patch of garden as while the roses are beautiful they are just too overwhelming for such a small space!

I had to go for a scan at the hospital yesterday, after having been seen by my gynae every three months for the last year. Apparently a cyst suddenly developed last June and he wanted to keep an eye on it - hence the three monthly visits. I can't say it ever worried me because I'm just not a worrier, and when I went about two weeks ago, he decided he could "sign me off" to every six months as blood markers for tumors had come back negative and he thought the cyst might be shrinking too. But still he wanted me to go for a scan just to be sure - you know, at the hospital with 100 beds and 1 and ⅓ parking spaces! So this time I reckoned I should try parking at the border and figuring out the bus/walk/tram way to get there. In actual fact it was pretty easy so I arrived very early and had time to sit and have a coffee in the lovely coffee shop. It's the hospital where Jordan was born and is very luxurious, although very pricey too, of course! Anyway, the nurse called me at 3 o'clock and asked if I had a full bladder (that's a bit personal isn't it???) but when I said no she told me I had to sit and drink at least three glasses of water for the scan to be accurate. So being a good girl I drank four, and when she came back to see me I got up to follow her and she said "oh no, now you have to sit here for at least 45 minutes to wait for the water to make it's way through"! Oh crap, I'm always bursting for the loo under normal circumstances, so I reckoned I was going to do the Mr. Bean squirm by the end of 45 minutes! Anyway, the doctor did a couple of tests and told me she thought everything looked absolutely fine and was nothing to worry about, so I kinda thanked her and went running out the door to the loo! After that I decided to walk back to the border and was surprised to find it only took 45 minutes so I think that's how I'll be making that trip in future! On the way back home I got stuck behind a bike race (but not the Tour de France as it hasn't reached here yet) and a vintage car rally, so I was really glad I didn't still have the four glasses of water in me at that point! Agony Ivy, as we used to say! And as I said to Dave, the cars were lovely and the bums were pretty nice too!

And finally, I've been pussy-footing around lately thinking about where I might go in spring - as was my wont pre-covid, so I starting looking at Solos and Just You and Explore, and "ooh look Explore have a special on Belize, and ooh look there's a trip to the Golden Triangle", and then I gave myself a good talking to and said "where have you always, always, said you wanted to visit", so just in case this turns out to be my last long-haul, I went ahead and booked Thailand with Explore.co.uk for end February 2024. Since I wanted to make my own flight arrangements rather than having to fly back to London and then fly out again, I started looking up Thai, Qatar, Etihad and Emirates and today, after much piddling around, I booked myself on Emirates, via Dubai. The prices were pretty reasonable actually so I thought I would try to pick out a decent seat in economy, buuutttt this little voice in my head said "go on, just do it", so even though I might have to sell a kidney (mind you, who'd want one of mine?), I booked myself in business class and will happily spend the next year paying for it! So yay me, I'm finally going to Thailand!

It's all go!

How come weeks seem to go by where nothing much is happening, and then all of a sudden I have appointments left, right and centre? I recently ordered heating fuel so I would have a good start to the winter. It's obviously always better to order in the summer rather than the winter but I'm still thinking prices have started to come back down again after the enormous price hike associated with the war in Ukraine. The lady who took my order is very, very nice and when I told her I needed 1,700 litres she told me that comparing a 1,000 litre order last time to 1,000 litres this time, the price had come down €600, and if I wanted to compare it to a 1,700 litre order I was "better off" by €900! So while it's still a big chunk of chump change, I'll take the "win"! Out of curiosity I also went into my electric account and while it was initially showing consumption down around 27% after I had my solar panels installed, for the month of May it was down 37%, so that's looking good too. Of course it'll take a few years to recoup the installation costs, but so far I don't regret having them installed!

Then yesterday "the guys" came to instal my fireplace insert. It's a good job I keep track of my appointments because I was kinda expecting them to send a reminder message the day before but nope, nothing doing. Thankfully I was showered and dressed when they showed up at 8 a.m. and within four hours they'd got it installed. It wasn't an easy instal because of the limited size of my fireplace, but when I told them that I'd been to three other places and they'd all said "not possible" the guy just said that some companies just don't want the harder jobs. That being said, they did work very hard and the poor guy on the roof must have been boiling because it was 90°F that day and then the boss came in with wood and kindling because he was obliged to start a fire in order to see that everything was hunky dory. You can't believe what having a roaring fire blazing in the living room feels like when it's aready 90°. Still, that's another thing crossed off my list, except that I have to get the paperwork from them as I'm entitled to a €2,000 rebate from the French state for putting an open fireplace out of commission. Also, with the new insert it should prevent any more birds from coming down the chimney apparently. Last week as I walked into my TV room a terrified sparrow almost blew my head off, so I'm guessing he must have plopped down the chimney during the night. Then as I was loading up garden stuff to take to the recycling centre, I didn't spot the wasp attached to the bag, so ended up getting a nice sting to the belly - but I got my own back when he died a cruel death! You guys might think you have it rough with your grizzlies and snakes and crocodiles, but sometimes I have to wonder!

Monday night the plumber came by to have another look at my bathrooms, and we have finally fixed a date of 10 July for him to start work (he'd been off on paternity leave). So then when I got in touch with the tiler that I had lined up, he wasn't going to be available until September, so now I have another tiler stopping by (Monday, I think) who can hopefully work around the plumber! I'm not looking forward to the mess but I am so over waiting to get this work done!

I don't know about you, but when I was still working I found I would put off making my personal appointments until I got really mad at myself and then would make 10 phone calls one after the other and get everything sorted in a short space of time. Procrastination at its finest! I had another doctor's appointment in Geneva on Friday (he's been seeing me every three months for the past year) but he thinks he can push that back to every six months going forward but as he wants to be absolutely certain of himself I have to go to the hospital for an ultrasound scan just for him to sign off. You know, the bloody hospital with 500 beds and two parking spaces!!! I'm not worried about the scan, but figuring out how to get there should be a laugh a minute! So I've got that scheduled, plus the dentist and then the hairdresser to get this mop removed from my head and then hopefully that'll be it for a good long while!

Oh, but I forgot about my appointment at Ford today. I had to cancel having them take off my winter tyres and there was a minor repair that needed doing, so I left my car at Ford this morning and then caught the rickety old minibus back home. It's a real bone shaker so you wouldn't want to have brittle bones! I thought it was kinda nice though because after we'd driven through one village the driver told me he thought he'd missed a young girl who sometimes caught his bus and would I mind if he doubled back to see? Not at all, of course, and as it happened she didn't need the bus today, but I thought it was kind of him to do that. Then tonight, on my way back down to Ford, a new driver took a wrong road - and then apologised because he "had only been here a month". When I asked him where he'd come from he said the north of England and when I told him I was English he told me he'd go back in a heartbeat (he was French) as he loved it and had so many friends after spending the last eleven years there. So here's me totally happy in France and this Frenchman wanting to move back to England. I guess it's a good job we're all different!

Talking of brittle bones though, my neighbour (who just turned 90) had a fall last week and broke her femur. I have always admired this couple because they are forever out walking and he - at 87 - could still walk me into the ground. She is adamant she didn't trip over anything, but that her femur just gave way. Poor thing, it must be a real stressor for someone who has been so active her entire life!

Last night I finally finished watching the latest (and last) series of Mrs. Maisel and thoroughly enjoyed it. I can't say that about many series, to be honest, as for the most part I just can't be bothered with them. But I just loved the New York jewish humour (brilliant writers), with Tony Shalhoub as the neurotic grandfather almost having a nervous breakdown when he realizes his only grandson is not a genius - well he just steals the show for me. Him and Caroline Aaron as the brash, loud-mouthed mother-in-law. They were a real treat to watch! 

Tony Shalhoub

As I say, most of the series I have started I haven't actually finished because they don't hold my interest and I'm finding I'm starting to do the same with books. In the last couple of weeks I have finished seven very good books, and put three aside after a couple of chapters. Life really is too short to read a bad book!

And finally, I was just thinking that I should start looking at prospective destinations if I want to maybe do a long haul trip next spring and then waddaya know, Explore (who I have used before) are offering 10% off bookings made before 27 June. So I'm drooling looking at Thailand, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Mexico, South Africa ....! Oh dear, so much choice - that's never a good thing for me!

Not all superheroes wear capes!

As an update to my last post, the good news is that all of the four toddlers (aged between 22 and 36 months) stabbed by that lunatic are now out of danger (as are the two adults). The back story is he had been living in Sweden for the last 10 years and had asylum there. He split from his wife and last autumn travelled to France and requested asylum here in France. The French refused his request on 4 June on the grounds that he had been living for the last 10 years in Sweden, so now if he wanted to move to France he would have to qualify as an immigrant, and not under refugee status. Apparently his ex-wife had already written to both the Swiss and French authorities warning them that he was unstable but ....! So he'd lived in Annecy in an "irregular situation" since last autumn and then decided, for whatever reason, to stab a bunch of little kids in a play area. All I can say is thank God the kiddies are going to be all right. Well no, actually thanks don't belong to God, they belong to the first responders and doctors and nurses. Actually no, to give thanks where they really belong - well that would be to a 24 year old hero who came out swinging and managed to get that lunatic away from the play area until security forces could pin him down! It's ironic that footballers can be paid millions and when they score a goal they're referred to as "heroes" but in reality not all heroes wear capes!

Henri - a real hero!

In other news, my friend and I took our annual trip to the market in Turin yesterday, our first since 2019, for obvious reasons! We were up at the crack of dawn to catch the bus at 6 a.m. If all goes to plan we make it to Turin around 10 a.m. and then get to spend around six hours doing our own thing. We've done this trip often enough now to realize that next time we can afford to spend an hour or so exploring the old town before having lunch and then hitting the market. There are markets all over Turin but I reckon this must be the biggest. It's not even in the best part of town - it's a bit grubby and run down, to be honest - but god I love that market. As soon as I duck under the stall awnings I'm in my element. Prices have gone up just as everywhere else (it's still cheaper than where I live), but just the sensory experience is worth the trip for me!

Look at the size of those watermelons!

In my dream world I would live in one of 
those apartments and wander down to
the market every day! It's not even that noisy - 
Birmingham market is way noisier!

Having lunch next to
the market!

It drizzled on and off all day, but after a few minutes of rain, the sun would come back out and we'd end up walking round in what felt like a sauna! On the way back to the border we stopped at an outlet mall, the main point of stopping apparently being to buy booze and cigarettes! Our trip cost €60 so you don't actually "save" money by going to Turin, but I suppose if you are also buying spirits and cigarettes it might work out evens-stevens financially. I wouldn't know though, as I didn't buy either. To me it's just a lovely day out. I personally spent around €100 at the market (in addition to lunch), We had three buses going in our "convoy", I saw two buses from Annecy and quite a few more from other French regions relatively local to Turin, so the market really makes out by having the French buses stop in. Just as the northern French ports used to make a killing when the Brits would do a day trip by car and load up at the local supermarkets. Of course all that stopped when Britain left the EU. It's "funny" (in a not so funny ha ha sense) how these things have a knock on effect. Just imagine if the French could no longer visit the market in Turin and cross back into France with their purchases duty free. The whole house of cards would come tumbling down wouldn't it! A case of the hip bone's connected to the thigh bone, methinks!

The Glacier de Bosson, seen from
the Italian side, just before we hit
the French border!